The San Saba news. [volume] (San Saba, Tex.) 1873-1966, 1887-05-20
POPULAR SCIENCE.

1t Is estimated that the fog which al
most ceaselessly hangs over Lendon con
tains nearly fifty tons of Solid carbon anc
/ $50 tons of carbon in the form OF hydro
carbon and carbonic oxide gaSs.
The slopes Of Etna and Vesuyius owe
their richness to the fertilizing action o.
volcanic ashes, and reports fom New
Zealand indicate that the ashes from last
years eruption have enriched The soil tc
a remarkable degree.
Heavy machinery is run by artesian.
well power in many parts of France, and
the experience of the French shows that
the deeper the well the greater the pres
sure and the higher the temperature. Al
Grenelle a well sunk to the depth of 1902
feet, and flowing daily $780, 0l gallons,
has a pressure of sixty pounds to the
square inch, and the water from this well
is so hot that it is used for heating the
hospitals in the vicinity.
1t is an error TO suppose that severe
winters are destructive TO insect life, &C.
cording to Mr.. McLachlan, an English
entomologist Larve may be frozen I'M
til as brittle as rotten sticks, In which
condition they can scarcely be said to
live. but on the return of warm weather
they revive, quite uninjured by their
freezing. 1t is a noteworthy fact that
butterflies and bumblebees have been
found almost as close tG the North Pole
as man has ever approached.
The lSiaereal Messenger contains an arti-
Gle by DR.. 8. V. Clevenger on the optical
appearance of comets. He holds that
comets are aggregations, usually spheri-
cal or spheroidal. of relatively tenuous
and variable densities, and their nuclei
and tails are optical appearances only
According to his view, the first or tele-
scopic tglobular) appearance of the comet
is the only real one, and all the rest issin-
ply phenomenal to an extent which some
other people might feel justified in call
ing delusive.
The mean atmospheric pressure for the
whole earth, as shown by the barometer,
is found by Kleiber, of st. Petersburg, to
be 90. OF inches. That for the northern
hemisphere is 90. SO inches, and for the
southern 29.S7. The average northern
excess is greatly increased in January, but
becomes a deficiency in July, when the
southern pressure is slightly the greater,
a mass of air sufficient to give pressure
of nearly "a over hemisphere appearing
to be periodically shifted from one side
of the equator to the other by the chang
ing seasons.
1t is thought that in the making Of
stock sizes Of sash, doors and blinds, in
the factories of the Northwest, white
pine will not much longer be the mate
rial so exclusively Used heretofore. Pop
lar is commonly looked to as the most
available substitute. its reasonable price
being prime consideration, and there
are other woods adapted to the purpose.
One of the most recent and satisfactory
features in this line is the manufacture of
doors of Eastwood, treating them to a
printing coat of paint; they are found to
answer well in every respect, and, withal.
are comparatively inexpensive.
Every one knows that the sea has
larger animals than can be found on land;
but, with the enormous sequoias of Cali
fornia in mind, many may be surprised 10
learn of vegetable growths in the ocean
vastly exceeding in length, though not
in bulk, these giants of the forest. Re-
Gently the ship Clever, commanded by
Captain John Stone, arrived at Montevi-
dec with a portion of seaweed which
had been picked Up in the Atlantic near
the equator. The sailors perceived an
object floating on the surface some dis
lance from the ship, and, manning boat,
they rowed 10 it, and ascertained that it
was an alga of enormous size. On meas
uring it, it was found to have length
upward of 1900 feet